Shoot-Day Asset Delivery Plan: Naming, Backups, Review and Handover

A late delivery can be decided before anyone sees an edit. Picture files named three ways, one copy of a card living in a bag, a client who first sees the footage days later, and a version nobody planned turning up at the end. None of that is a post-production problem. It is a shoot-day problem that post inherits.

This is the plan a production can run on the day, from the first folder to the handover. One thing up front: Scope is a hire studio, so the delivery system belongs to the production. The room and the team can support it, and why the room decides the deadline sets out how. The cards, the names, the backups and the sign-off are yours to run, or to hand to crew you have hired.

Before the day: matrix, names and a folder tree

Start from the campaign asset matrix: every placement, format and length the shoot has to feed. It is the delivery list. If a deliverable is not on it, nobody is shooting for it, and if it is on it, you can trace it back to a set-up. Put the matrix, the call sheet and the shot list in the same folder the crew will see on the morning.

Then agree the naming convention and the folder tree in writing, and send them with the call sheet. Camera originals keep the names the camera gave them, because those names are how the footage is matched to its card. Everything you make from them gets your convention. Keep names free of spaces, with a project code first so they sort, and a version number last.

• Root folder: CLIENT-CAMPAIGN_YYYY-MM-DD_SHOOT, one per shoot day, never a desktop dump.
• 01_CAMERA_ORIGINALS: one subfolder per card, named by camera letter and card number (A001, B001), contents copied untouched.
• 02_AUDIO: recorder files and wild tracks, in subfolders matching the camera cards.
• 03_SELECTS: copies of the approved takes, never moves, so the originals stay whole.
• 04_LOGS_AND_PAPERWORK: shot log, asset matrix, call sheet, releases and the approvals record.
• 05_HANDOVER: the package, built last and nowhere else.
• File name pattern for anything you create: PROJECT_SETUP02_SHOT014_TAKE03_V01, the same fields in the same order every time.

Name one person who owns the offload

On a busy set, everyone assumes someone else copied the card. Put a name against offload on the call sheet. It should not be the camera operator, who is busy with the next set-up, and it should be someone who will not feel pressure to hurry. On a larger job that is a data wrangler or DIT. The production desk can source crew including DITs, quoted by the team, and nothing like that is assumed in a room booking.

Bring your own drives, card readers and a laptop or workstation for the job, and ask the studio what you can plug in and where, because Scope does not publish power ratings or a kit list for offload. Asking costs one email. Finding out on the morning of the shoot costs the first set-up.

On the day: the offload rhythm

The rule is simple, and it is the one that saves jobs: a card is not wiped until its contents exist in two places, on two separate drives, and the copy has been verified. Verified means your copy tool has compared the files, not that the progress bar finished. Only then does the owner say the card is clear, aloud, and the camera assistant takes it back.

• Copy the card to the working drive and to a second, separate drive. Two folders on one drive is one copy.
• Verify both copies against the card, then log the card as safe.
• Update the shot log as you go: set-up, shot, take, a one-line note, and a mark on the takes the director liked.
• Keep the audio recorder on the same rhythm as the cameras, and note the slate or timecode that ties them together.
• At the end of the day, make a third copy that leaves the building with someone, or goes to a place you control.

Review and approvals at checkpoints, not at wrap

The costliest sentence in delivery is "we'll look at it after". Approvals taken at wrap arrive with the crew gone, the set struck and nothing to reshoot with. Put checkpoints into the running order instead: after each look or set-up, the person who signs off sees the selects, on a screen, while the set is still standing.

That needs somewhere to look that is not the middle of the floor. Studio B's listed features include a dedicated edit and playback area, so ask where it sits and what it can show. The building also has a client lounge, which gives the decision-makers somewhere to wait and then decide. If the day needs a proper edit or review desk, the Workshop seats up to twenty, has ten iMac workstations and works as a production office, casting room or edit suite. Software and machine specification are not published, so ask before you rely on a particular edit tool.

• Record each approval in writing the moment it is given: an email, or initials on the shot list. A nod in the lounge is not an approval.
• Keep a versions list from the matrix onwards: each cut, each length, each ratio, with what changed and who asked.
• Approve the selects, not the edit. The client decides what was good enough on the day and the edit follows.
• If a deliverable fails its checkpoint, you still have the set and the talent. At wrap you have neither.

End of the day: verify, package, hand over

Before anyone leaves, do the checks that cannot be done later. Count the cards against the log, open a few files from each drive and play them through, and confirm the shot log matches the folders. A mismatch found on the day is a quick fix. Found a week later, it can be a reshoot conversation.

Then build the handover package in 05_HANDOVER, and send it only when the checks are done. It should hold the selects and the logs, the asset matrix marked up with what was captured against each cell, the approvals record and the versions list. Say who receives what. The edit house needs the originals and the log, the client needs the selects and the record, and the agency producer needs everything.

Under the terms of hire, clients retain all rights to the content they produce at Scope, so the files are yours to deliver. Scope may ask permission to use behind-the-scenes footage or images from your booking and will not use any without your prior written consent, which is worth knowing when your own team films the day. Film insurance, releases and paperwork covers the releases that belong in the paperwork folder.

Mapping the plan onto the booked block

Set-up and pack-down sit inside the booked time, so the plan has to fit inside it too. A full day in Studio B is 8 hours at £420 and a half day is 4 hours at £220, and the final offload and verification belong before pack-down finishes, not after the room has emptied. The pace of the day below is illustrative, not a recommendation for your job, and the checkpoints matter more than the clock times.

• Start: load in, set up, test the cards and the naming on the first slate. Confirm the folder tree with the crew in the room.
• After each look: a short offload of the cards used, then a checkpoint on the selects.
• Mid-day: a longer review, the versions list updated and the next looks confirmed.
• Before pack-down: the last offload, the second copy verified, the third copy made.
• Pack-down: only once the verified copies exist and the approvals are on record.

Lights are charged separately in every room but the DJ room, so please enquire about our lights and the team will quote for what the shoot needs. How many looks fit in a block depends on the job; plan one checkpoint per look. The call sheet to wrap guide shows how the running order is built, and the van, the yard and the door covers load-in to Studio A at ground level through the roller door, with parking in the yard.

What to ask the studio before the day

Scope publishes high-speed Wi-Fi throughout the building but not the connection speed, so ask, and test it before you rely on it for a deadline upload. It also does not publish a file-transfer or hosting service, storage after the day, a data-wrangling service, power ratings, or turnaround times. Ask the team about each one rather than assuming. The questions to put to any hire studio are collected in choosing a hire studio for asset delivery.

Nobody remembers the name of the folder that worked. They remember the card that was wiped too early.